A giant cabbage leaf descended from the sky.
Gao Yiye flinched on instinct, then caught herself. This was not her first time being fed by Tianzun. After the giant egg and the mountain of rice, she had learned to accept divine gifts without panicking.
Overjoyed, she dropped to her knees and kowtowed toward the sky.
"Thank you, Tianzun, for Your grace!"
Then she stood and shouted toward the village, "Everyone, come quick! Tianzun has sent food again!"
The words had barely left her mouth when doors flew open.
"Again?!"
"Tianzun sent more?!"
"Where? Where is it?!"
Villagers poured out of their huts, baskets forgotten on the ground. An old woman tripped over her own feet and nearly went face-first into the dirt. A child ran past her, screaming with laughter. Even the ones who had been too weak to stand just yesterday were suddenly on their feet, pushing through the crowd.
They stopped dead when they saw it.
A wall of green.
"What in the..."
"Is that... a leaf?"
"That's not a leaf. That's a mountain."
The cabbage leaf lay across the sand like a fallen hillside, its veins thick as tree trunks, its surface still glistening with morning dew. The villagers stared, mouths hanging open.
Gao Yiye walked up to the leaf and pressed both hands against it. Then she turned around, eyes wide.
"It's real. It's actually real."
"Of course it's real!" someone shouted. "Tianzun sent it!"
"Tianzun is watching over us!"
"Praise Tianzun!"
The Village Chief raised both hands, and the crowd settled.
"One piece per household! No fighting, no grabbing, we do this properly. Cut extra portions for Chuwu and the lads heading to the county town. They will need their strength today."
No one argued. They lined up and took their shares, slicing off chunks of the leaf, each piece still as tall as a man. They carried them home like treasures, laughing and shouting the whole way.
Just as Li Daoxuan had predicted, with food in their bellies so early in the morning, nobody was in a hurry to dig for wild greens.
When people are hungry, they have only one problem: figuring out what to eat. But once that problem is solved, a hundred new ones appear.
The village transformed. It no longer looked like a refugee camp. It looked like a place where people actually lived.
Li Daoxuan watched through his magnifying glass, fascinated by the sudden burst of activity.
"Sanwa! The crotch of your pants has been torn for days. Come here and let your mother sew it up."
A middle-aged woman sat on a stool, needle and thread in hand. She was stitching a rough linen shirt for her son. No modern tools, just scissors and a needle, but her hands moved with practiced skill, mending torn trousers and shaping new garments with surprising neatness.
"Brother La Ba, didn't you say you would teach me how to fire clay pots? I dug up a huge chunk of yellow mud. Show me how to turn it into a pot!"
Two men crouched over a lump of yellow clay. La Ba clearly knew what he was doing. In no time, he shaped the mud into a smooth, symmetrical pot. His companion tried to copy him and ended up with something lopsided, but he grinned anyway, proud of his crooked creation.
On the other side of the village, the Village Chief turned out to be a craftsman too. He whittled a pile of bamboo strips and wove them into a basket and two hampers. The work was clean, tight, and sturdy. Years of practice showed in every weave.
"Yiyi, my woodchopping knife's edge is rolled. Help me forge it, will you?"
Yiyi, the blacksmith, was helping a neighbor repair a machete. Ding. Ding. Ding. By the time you could chant a single Namo Amitabha, the blade was done, sharp and gleaming like new.
The diorama box had come alive. Li Daoxuan watched it all with growing interest.
Then his attention snagged on something else.
Gao Yiye was drawing water from the well. She hauled up a full bucket, carried it back to her hut, poured it into a large wooden basin, then shut the door and barred the window.
Li Daoxuan froze.
She is going to wash.
His heart started pounding like a drum. He glanced down at the magnifying glass in his hand. Then at Gao Yiye's hut.
The hut was falling apart. Holes everywhere. Especially on the roof. Three years of drought meant nobody bothered fixing leaks anymore. There was one hole right near the top, angled perfectly.
If I just move the lens a little to the left...
I could see everything.
Li Daoxuan stared at the magnifying glass.
Then at the hut.
Then at the magnifying glass again.
Okay. Okay. Think about this rationally.
Option one: Be a decent human being. Look away. Respect her privacy. Continue living as a normal, well-adjusted member of society.
Option two: Be a wolf.
His hand twitched toward the lens.
...Just one peek. That's not that bad, right? Everyone's curious. It's scientific observation. She's technically a different species. This is anthropology.
His hand stopped.
No. No, no, no. What the hell am I thinking? She's a person. A tiny, starving, traumatized person who thinks I'm a god. If I peek at her bathing, that makes me worse than those bailiffs.
His other hand twitched.
But the roof hole is RIGHT THERE...
Right as he was agonizing over the choice, a face appeared at the hole.
Gao Yiye.
She had stacked a table on top of a stool, climbed up precariously, and now her little head was poking through the gap in the roof, looking straight up at the sky.
Li Daoxuan had not even raised the glass to his eye yet. He was just staring at the hut, the magnifying glass still sitting in his hand.
Then she looked up.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them moved.
Gao Yiye stared up at him, eyes wide. Then her face turned red.
Not a little red. Not a cute, subtle blush. She went full tomato. Deep, burning crimson, so intense it actually managed to fight through the layers of dirt and grime on her cheeks.
She scrambled down from her makeshift tower so fast she nearly fell, yanked the door open, and bolted outside.
Li Daoxuan sat there, magnifying glass still in hand, staring at the empty roof hole.
He set the glass down on the desk.
Gao Yiye burst out of her hut and ran straight to the Village Chief. She crouched beside him, lowered her voice as much as she could, and whispered, "Grandpa. I need to ask you something."
The Village Chief did not look up from his weaving. "Mm? What is it?"
Gao Yiye's face was still burning red. "Tianzun... He is always... watching me. From the sky."
"So?"
"So... how am I supposed to change clothes? Or... or bathe?"
The Village Chief finally looked up. He stared at her for a moment, then let out a short laugh through his nose.
"That is it? That is what has you running over here looking like your pants are on fire?"
"Grandpa!"
"Listen, girl." He set down his bamboo strips and wiped his hands on his knees. "Who gave you your life? Who fed you when everyone else was eating dirt? Who saved us from those bandits?"
"Tianzun..."
"Right. Tianzun." He picked his strips back up and resumed weaving. "So what if He watches you? Let Him watch. You think a god cares about your skinny little body? You are skin and bones, child. There is nothing to see."
Gao Yiye opened her mouth, then closed it.
"And if He ever asks for more..." The Chief shrugged, his fingers moving through the bamboo without pause. "Then you give more. Simple as that. You think you get to keep your life and your modesty both? Tch. Greedy girl."
During this era, there were many strange folk beliefs, and it was quite common for some sects to require women to serve "the gods." Of course, the gods themselves never tasted a drop of those benefits. The ones these women served with their bodies were simply the monks, Daoist priests, and frauds who spoke on behalf of the gods.
Author's note: Do not just laugh at the ancients. Things like this still happen in modern times.
Hearing the Village Chief's words, Gao Yiye's heart skipped a beat.
So that is how it is? Tianzun saved my life and gave me food because he needs me to... serve him?
The young and handsome face of Tianzun flashed through her mind. She shook her head violently.
Oh gosh. What am I thinking? So disrespectful.
She walked back home and looked up at the hole in the roof. She had been meaning to patch it for weeks. Now she just stared at it.
Then she shrugged.
Fine. If Tianzun wants to look, let him look. My life belongs to him anyway. What do I have to hide?
She untied her clothes with trembling hands.
Her body was not a pretty sight. The yellow sand had caked onto her skin in layers. Years of hunger had left her with nothing but bones wrapped in thin, dry skin. There was nothing beautiful here. Nothing worth looking at.
She laughed at herself.
With a body like this, Tianzun probably would not even glance twice. What am I even hiding for?
She picked up a piece of ragged cloth, wrung it out over the bucket, and began wiping herself down.
What she did not know was that Li Daoxuan had already put down the magnifying glass.
If she had not caught me, I might have actually done it, he admitted to himself. I might have become that guy.
He shook his head.
But getting caught peeping once is enough. No normal person has the nerve to try a second time.
He shifted his gaze toward the edge of the diorama box. His expression grew serious.
Chuwu and the others had left for the county town hours ago. Once they stepped past the glass boundary, he would lose sight of them.
I cannot protect them out there. I cannot feed them. What if they get killed? What if the Magistrate catches them?
How am I supposed to help them from here?